Which is Better, the Fire 7 Kids Edition or the Dragon Touch Y88X Plus Kids?

Fire 7 Kids EditionAmazon’s Fire 7 Kids Edition and the Dragon Touch Y88X Plus Kids are both tablets designed for children, so how do the two compare? Both are 7″ tablets (there is also Amazon’s Fire 8 Kids Edition, which is similar enough that only the differences between it and the Fire 7 will be noted; this is an 8″ tablet) and both have a screen resolution of 1024×600 pixels (the resolution of the Fire 8 is 1280×800). Each comes in a protective case intended to reduce the chance of the tablet being damaged if it is dropped; both tablets’ cases come in several colours.

Both tablets are Android tablets with the Y88X Plus running 5.1 Lollipop. The Fire 7 is not a regular Android tablet, though, running Amazon’s own version of the Android OS, Fire OS. The Y88X Plus has access to Google Play; out of the box and without extensive tweaking, the Fire 7 does not, instead having access to the Amazon Appstore.

The Fire 7 has 16 gigabytes (GB) of internal memory, double the 8 GB of the Y88X Plus (the Fire 8 has quadruple the memory of the Plus, with 32 GB). Both have memory card slots, with that of the Y88X Plus taking memory cards up to 32 GB in size whilst that of the Fire takes memory cards up to 256 GB. Both tablets have quad core processors, WiFi, Bluetooth and a micro USB port.

Both tablets have front and rear facing cameras. The front facing camera of the Fire 7 is 0.3 megapixels (MP) in resolution and the rear facing camera is 2.0 MP. The rear facing camera of the Plus is 2.0 MP; the exact resolution of the front facing camera is uncertain (due to conflicting information from the manufacturers, whose own employees do not seem to know the specs of their tablets). Both have 3.5 mm headphone jacks, with the Plus having two speakers compared to the single speaker of the Fire 7 (the Fire 8 has two speakers with Dolby ATMOS stereo).

Both tablets have parental controls with those on the Y88X Plus being through the Zoodles app. Those on the Fire 7 are linked to Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, a subscription-based service (one year’s subscription is included with the tablet). FreeTime provides over 13,000 apps, games, films, television shows, ebooks and educational apps with unlimited use, which are aimed at children and are divided into suitable age bands. FreeTime Unlimited also prevents normal access to the internet, making sure parents can vet what their children are exposed to.

The Fire 7 also comes with Amazon’s two year “worry-free” guarantee, in which they state they will repair or replace a damaged or faulty tablet, even if the damage is accidental.

The Fire 7 is generally technically equal to or better than the Dragon Touch Y88X Plus Kids (with the Fire 8 being even better), only being really let down by the single speaker for the Fire 7. It has greater memory, the ability to take larger memory cards and similar quality cameras. The Plus tends to be a cheaper tablet than the Fire, but its most serious problems are with the company’s customer service, which is reportedly substandard. The worry-free guarantee provided by Amazon should be helpful here. The Dragon Touch Y88X Plus Kids is a generally cheaper tablet than either the Fire 7 Kids Edition or the Fire 8 Kids Edition, but the Amazon tablets have better capabilities and do not seem to have the customer service problems of the Dragon Touch.